The picture above shows two ladies taking their respective portraits in one of the lake decks at Atitlán. After capturing this moment, I was left thinking on why do we take pictures, and it was inevitable to think of time as the answer, like expressed in the song attached to this posts.

“The clock may not mean much to rabbits and owls”

Anyways, the clock, means -and much- to Guatemala this year:

The Guatemalan Government reports positive progress regarding several issues in the country in its most recent annual report to which, relatively well informed people, qualify fake and insulting.

This is the first time I’ve been at La Esquina Jazz Café, and I’m sure people told me about this place at least a year ago, located at 6ta avenida 0-15 zona 2, Guatemala City. It’s a great place to hear live Jazz and have a drink after work. The melody below was part of the restaurant’s playlist that night, according to my friend Luis, thank you for the reference!

High ceiling coffee shops should be my next photographic hunt, don’t you think? Also, I’m a fan of low light places like the one in the picture, that is Café León, located at zona 1. If you want to know where’s located go to the previous review of this place. As the afternoon progress, the place gets more people accompanied by a book or friends catching up.

In this kind of buildings, I think I’ll always enjoy to zone out thinking about the original building, the first inhabitants and the sumptuous life they had. Most of them politicians or the first tradesmen that the city came to know.

Guatemalan athletes seem to be having a recent boom in all kinds of disciplines and I just think that in a country so small like ours, this spreads and inspire a lot of people faster than a bigger city. Just to mention a few of them: Mirna Ortiz, Mayra Herrera, Erick Barrondo. Eli has covered a lot of activity with biking and hiking in Guatemala City, but what about swimming?

The cheapest option in Guatemala City probably would be the olympic pool at San Carlos University, is open to the public and I hear it’s not expensive. But I guess if you’re serious about it, you can always consider to enroll in the official national institution: National Federation of Swim, Diving and Water Polo.

There’s always gyms, probably the most expensive of all the options but if you need flexibility related to the location or schedule, this is your best option.

I ignore the exact definition of “open waters” but since Guatemala it’s a country with so many natural resources, I’m sure (and I’ve heard of this) several lakes in the country are used to train this discipline. In the picture above, a guy swimming in the Lake Petén Itzá. I hear there’s fear to overcome when swimming in open waters, and from all my fears, this is the greatest one, I think. Maybe I’ll do a few interviews related to this discipline in the future.

Big cities, hostile as they are, offer even more chances for you to be more empathetic and kind. It’s fine if you fail at first, after all, we all grow thinking our future is the one that matters right?, our school, our projects, our home, our car, our T.V. and so on.

The picture above got me thinking… when was the last time I gave somebody flowers, or the last time I kissed the hand of a lovely lady.

Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me,
why should you not speak to me?
And why should I not speak to you?

— Walt Whitman

Well, they aren’t strangers anymore, but I remembered the poem and wanted to share it with you all, from left to right: Denis, Daniel, Petina and Kevin. Lovely, warm people. At this point, we were taking a walk to the center of Santiago Atitlán from Chacaya village. Locals told me it’s ok to walk in the day time, at night, not so much, there might be “bad people” they said.

But, in any case, good luck to them in the rest of their respective trips through Guatemala and the rest of the world.